Clean Hands
by IvoryGreenReading
Summary: For every Eclare shipper that just needs them to start over.  Literally.- Eli is the knew kid.  Clare and her best friend, Adam, and stumbling through their tenth year.  R&R.  Little drama, lots of needed fluff.  because we're all depressed over DTW...
1. Chapter 1

Clare's fingers found her curly locks. Her pink painted nails stuck out of her hair, but her palm stayed resting on the top of her head. She was already aching to go home, and it was barely past her first class. After allowing her fingers to recede from her flaming hair, she took a quick glance to her mirror. Once she adjusted her cross necklace and placed a black clip into her hair, she closed her locker. Clare's back found the outside of her colorful locker.

"Someone's gonna be late." Adam droned out sarcastically. He leaned against a locker next to Clare. His foot tapped against the floor loudly as he awaited his best friend's reply.

"I don't really care today." Clare shrugged. Adam sprung from the cooled metal of the locker as soon as the words were spoken. He'd never heard such words from this girl.

Adam poked a flower on Clare's shirt, "Are you really Clare Edwards? Because _she _would never say such a thing." He said teasingly. Clare swatted his callused hand away, "Okay, what's wrong?"

A hot breath came from Clare's lips before she responded, "I don't know, really. I just woke up today and felt," she paused to take in her surroundings. The halls were abandoned except for a few stray students who were scurrying towards their classes. Another heaving breath flew from her before she finished, "empty. Like I'm missing something."

Adam pulled Clare away from the lockers gently by her hand, "Maybe you're just tired of the same old routine. Try doing something different today." With that, Clare was shoved across the hall and tumbling into Ms. Dawes's classroom. A snickering Adam followed close behind.

_'Something different…'_ Clare thought to herself uneasily as she took her seat.

Her first thought was to write down a list of things she'd always thought would be fun, but never took the initiative to actually do. Before she could even open her notebook up, though, a soft knock came from behind her.

"Ms. Dawes," Sav called out softly, as if there was a sleeping baby in the room instead of several teenagers, "we have a new addition to your class."

A boy stepped out from behind Sav. His posture was slouched and his hands were dug deep into his bleached black skinny jeans. He had a black _Dead Hand _t-shirt on with a strange necklace hung loosely around his neck. He pulled one of his hands from his pocket to swipe his dark brown bangs from out of his eyes. His lips were pulled back into an alluring smirk, and it only deepened when he caught Clare's interested looks.

He stepped forward once Ms. Dawes spoke up, "Ah, I thought we had a new student coming," her attention turned to Sav, "thanks, Sav, we've got him now."

Sav didn't hesitate to turn around and saunter away from the scene. Once he turned the corner, Ms. Dawes motioned for the new student to take a seat. A seat that happened to be directly in front of Clare.

"Tell us about yourself. First, though, start with your name." the English teacher said once the boy was seated.

"Eli," the boy spoke up, "Eli Goldsworthy. And I guess all I can really say about myself is that I love my _Dead Hand _music- obviously- and I'm an aspiring writer. A young one at that." Eli laughed to himself, but it died out when no one else laughed along side him.

Once he finished speaking, though, Clare's head popped up from her notebook. He was a writer, too?

_'Well,'_ Clare thought to herself cautiously, _'Adam said to try something different. Time to make new friends?'_

She tapped his black clad shoulder once the class was settled down again. Her mouth was popped open just wide enough to take in a small amount of air, but not look like a dying fish. Her jaw snapped shut when Eli didn't turn around, though. Clare tapped his shoulder once more, but a little more forcefully. This time, he took notice.

"Ouch," He mocked pain as he rubbed his shoulder. His body spun to glare at her, but once his eyes fell on her face, his expression softened, "may I help you?"

Clare didn't know how to respond. She really should have thought this over more. Out of the corner of one of her blue eyes, she saw Adam with his arms slightly outstretched in a confused manner.

A clicking sound made her jump. It was Eli, tapping his fingernails along her desk. _'Oh yeah. I'm supposed to answer him.'_ Clare thought. She took in a shaky breath, and attempted to speak.

"I'm Clare." She squeaked out. Eli smirked at her before extending the hand that had been tapping away on her desk only moments before.

"Well hi." He whispered to avoid being caught by Ms. Dawes.

"I really um," Clare shot a desperate look towards Adam before turning her gaze back to the boy in front of her, "I really just wanted to tell you that I'm a writer, too."

"Oh, pretty _and _smart, now? What a combination." The dark boy remarked. Clare's face shifted into a dark cherry red. Her ears perked up at the sound of familiar laughter.

"Dude, why 'ya laughing?" Eli turned to Adam quizzically. Adam shrugged before nodding towards his best friend.

"Just seeing my best friend blush to a complete stranger makes me laugh." Adam said. He began shoving a few loose-leaf pieces of paper into his binder. It was then that Clare realized that it was nearing the end of the class. Had the class really passed by so quickly? Clare reached down to grab the straps of her black and green bag. Once it was hoisted up onto her shoulder, the bell rang.

"Oh, gotcha, bro." Eli laughed out suggestively before taking his own bag into his hands.

The petite 5 foot 3 inch girl shuffled after the mysterious boy, though, "What was that supposed to mean?" She caught his arm. Adam stood back in shock at how courageous she was being towards the new kid.

"I'm just saying that by the way your _best friend _over there reacted to us conversing made it seem a little more than friendship, Blue Eyes."

Clare sighed, "Adam and I are _just _friends. So don't try spreading any nasty rumors." Her finger came up to point at him humorously.

Eli rolled his eyes before settling on her, "Yeah, don't worry. Spreading rumors just isn't my style. I like being on the down low. Not being noticed, you know."

He turned to walk away from her, but only a few steps away, Clare called out to him, "Hey," she paused to wait for him to turn around, "what'd you just call me?"

"Blue Eyes."

"Uh, why?"

"Take a look in the mirror. Those two things above your nose? They're beautiful." He cocked his head the slightest bit to the right, allowing a smirk to appear on his face, before turning and walking away.

"Bye, Clare." He called out as he stepped around a corner. Clare held in a girlish squeal because she knew Adam was standing directly behind her. Plus, she didn't even know this boy.

He could be a real jerk.

_'Or he could be a really nice guy.' _A voice in the back of Clare's head whispered. She tried to swat it away, believe that he wasn't going to turn out to be a good guy. She didn't really want to think he was a decent person, but she wasn't sure as to why.

"I'm going to pretend like I didn't just see you flirting with a guy you don't even know. Want to head to _The Dot_?" Adam asked form behind the frozen Clare. She nodded, still stuck in place from the shock of what had just happened.

Adam scooped her hand up and began to pull her along the hallways until they reached the double doors. On the other side, they saw Eli leaned up against a hearse, "Welp, I guess the hearse rumors were true."

"Yeah." Clare responded dully. She couldn't find any more words.

They passed him on the way to the cross walk, and he simply scoffed. Clare shot him a look, and he smiled sweetly to her, "You two aren't exactly helping your case of only being _only _best friends." He pointed towards their interlocked fingers before pushing himself from the black vehicle.

Clare shrugged, "Best friends can hold hands. And plus, it's more like dragging the more lazy friend to _The Dot_."

"Ah," Eli said sarcastically, "right. Well, I'm headed home. See you two later."

He was inside the hearse and out onto the street before Adam could pull Clare any further down the parking lot.

"Adam," her panicky voice whispered, "is it bad to be attracted to someone you don't even know?"

* * *

><p>Chapter one. 3<p>

I'm not sure as to how many chapters this will be, but I'm mainly writing this to distract from the DTW drama. I'm restarting the two love birds. You know, letting them have a whole new story.

Now, answer me a few things, Loves.

1) Does Julia need to be included?

2) Does the hoarding need to be included?

3) Do we need some kind of Fitz drama?

Besides that, I have it planned. I don't want _too _much drama, because this is mostly to soothe the sad Eclare lovers. [me]


	2. Chapter 2

After finishing their meal at _The Dot_, Clare and Adam made their slow paced way back to their somewhat dreary school. Their lunch hour wasn't even close to the amount of time Clare needed to get _him _out of her head.

At one point when they were munching on shriveled up French fries, Adam scoffed and told Clare that just because she thought he was cute didn't mean that she was in love with him. To Clare, though, he wasn't just _cute_, he was alluring. It was as if he was holding the end of a rope that was lassoed around her. He kept tugging on the rope, and Clare couldn't help but tumble forward a few steps.

_'This is stupid,' _the auburn haired girl thought to herself, _'I've barely known the boy a few hours.'_

Before she could get too caught up in her thoughts, Adam began to belt out a familiar tune. She'd heard him sing it plenty of times before, but it wasn't until last week that she learned the name of it- along with a few lyrics.

Clare began to hum along to the off-beat, out of tune, jumbled mess called Adam's singing when a much smoother voice joined in. Auburn curls flew and blue eyes searched the surroundings immediately.

Eli caught up to Clare and Adam in time to sing the chorus with the beanie wearing boy. Once the two boys were done drumming their imaginary drum sticks in the air, they cheered together, "Dude, I didn't know you liked _Dead Hand_." Eli exclaimed with one last hit to his imaginary drum.

"They," Adam paused dramatically. Clare knew the next words by heart. Adam said them every few minutes, "are my _gods_!"

"You said that about _The Dot_'s French fries about five minutes ago." Clare muttered out sarcastically, "You even began to bow down to one of them before you shoved in your mouth."

"And it was _delicious_." Adam smiled.

"What's _The Dot_?" Eli asked. With only a short millisecond separating his sentence and the surprised gasps that surrounded Eli, he was sure that the odd sounding restaurant was something spectacular.

"Only the best hang out spot in the whole world. You have a lot to learn. You'll have to head over with Clare and I tomorrow for lunch. You in?"

Clare's breath caught in her throat, _'He could be a real jerk.' _She reminded herself. She didn't even know his favorite color. She couldn't say he was a nice guy yet alone a boyfriend worthy boy.

"Sure," Eli's voice brought Clare from her foggy thoughts, "that okay, Blue Eyes?"

Adam immediately clasped his hands together and pleaded to his best friend silently. He mouthed the words 'new best friends' towards her, so she nodded for Adam's sake. Adam separated his hands to do a quick victory dance. Eli walked ahead of the two without another word.

"You're such a dork." Clare remarked before pushing on the petite boy's shoulder. He tumbled sideways and then burst out in uncontrolled laughter.

"You're _both _dorks." Eli yelled a few feet ahead of the two.

The three separated only minutes later, but Adam's pleas kept scrolling through her mind. 'New best friend.'

_Right_.

.

.

"I don't really know. I _love _the pink shade, but the red just screams…sexy." Alli said as she weighed her two lip color choices. Clare had been listening to her complaints of wardrobe problems for the last hour in French. Now, she was just nodding mindlessly. That is, until she saw a familiar black sharpie covered hand waving through a crowd with Adam connected to his side.

"…and then he told me 'hi'! Can you believe th-Clare?" Alli stopped to wave her yellow finger nails in front of Clare's eyes. Her cheeks lost the color in them before jumping to a dark shade of cherry red.

_'This isn't natural. Someone doesn't just feel these things towards someone they don't know.' _Clare screamed inside her head. She was panicking at this point. Not even with KC, the boy who oh-so-gracefully pulled her heart to him the moment he scooped up her books last year, made her feel _this _weak in her knees.

What a cliché. Weak in her knees. In this case, though, it seemed _too _accurate. Alli clamped her hand down onto the jumbled girl's shoulder as support.

"Clare?"

"Clare!"

"Blue Eyes."

Never had Clare heard her name spoken all at once so many times. (Even though one of the names wasn't exactly hers. Just a nickname.)

"I just needed to let you know that I won't be walking to your house after school today. Eli and I are going to go catch the new issue of _The Goon _at _The Bookshelf _before they're all out." Adam pumped his fist into the air excitedly before rushing off. Eli stood in place watching Clare.

"Apparently there _is _someone more addicted to that comic book than me. I took out a first edition while we were both in the library." Eli laughed. He quickly turned to trail behind Adam.

"And who was that?" Alli questioned, poking Clare as she giggled. Clare pulled from her girly best friend with a heaving breathe.

"Just a new kid. Him and Adam are getting along. Instant best friends, I guess." Clare shrugged, her hand coming up to brush a curl from her face.

"Like you and me?" Alli side-bumped Clare with her hip. The two linked arms and continued jabbering on over their friendship over the last year or so.

.

.

**POV flip: Eli**

He couldn't help but want the friendship Adam had with her also. He hadn't even had a fully developed conversation with her, so how could he say that?

Eli's thoughts were broken once a comic collided with the front of his black _Dead Hand _t-shirt, "Eli, man, check it out! I found the third issue of _The Goon_ ever! This is like, a historical moment. Capture it, Elijah. Capture it." Adam turned to thumb through another pile of comics as Eli got lost in his thoughts again.

Maybe she was wrong for him. He couldn't risk his feelings for even a _friendship _with a girl in the even smallest chance of catching a deadly disease. A disease called feelings. A disease called 'let's be more than friends' or 'love'. Yeah, that last one was the worst case.

He couldn't feel that way again. He wouldn't allow it.

With the final decision etched into his mind, he pulled the comic book to the first page. A girl had her hand dramatically thrown over her forehead as she cried out. Her hair was curled lightly to frame her thin face. It was such a clichéd picture, but the girl reminded him of another girl with curls that landed below her chin just as the girl- who, after Eli examined the page more closely, was named Georgia- had her locks styled.

Clare.

"So Clare just texted me saying she has a project coming up and is skipping lunch tomorrow. Is it okay if it's just the two of us for your first experience at _The Dot_?" Adam asked without tearing his eyes from his silver phone.

Eli shrugged, but his eyes burned with a different message- one that he hoped Adam would find- that asked for him to text her back asking if she's sure and that they'd love to have her join them.

Another moment passed, only the ruffling of comic book pages being turned and the clicking of Adam's phone as he rapidly texted Clare back.

"She says thanks and she'll see us in English tomorrow." Adam said.

This was a bad idea. He was sure of it. Those feelings, the ones that had potential, they never ended okay. She'd get hurt, he'd get hurt. They'd both get hurt, and he knew it. But he could ruin that potential, right? He'd push her away just far enough so they'd never become _something_. They'd be like she was with Adam. He couldn't allow them to become something, because that would just leave heartbreak for all.

Especially for him.

For _her_.

What would _she _even think?

.

.

_Okay, lovelies. I had trouble writing this [just a bit]_

_Mostly because my internet is stupid and wouldn't allow me to get onto my favorite websites…Thesaurus and Dictionary :D_

_Thanks to a certain person on Tumblr [yeah, you know who you are…] I got this done._

_Next up will be a one-shot that I'll write this weekend. Then, the next chapter by Wed._

_Bye, beauties._

'_Til Sunday :D_

_Caro((line))_


End file.
